It's really dispicable that Obama handed the shuttles to states that supported him. It's not like Houston has any kind of link to the space program worthy of a shuttle, right? No, send two to Califormia and one to NYC.

Totally! I mean, just because NYC and L.A. are the two largest cities in the nation, garner massive amounts of international tourist traffic and dollars, and churn out giant support for the sciences as opposed to leeching the talent from out of state while deriding the scientific community, doesn't mean they deserve it, right?

F'in Fartbongo. I also hear he is a total grammar Nazi. That pretentious jerk off...

hetheeme:It's really dispicable that Obama handed the shuttles to states that supported him. It's not like Houston has any kind of link to the space program worthy of a shuttle, right? No, send two to Califormia and one to NYC.

Shameful.

Two to California? huh? Endeavour is the only one in California. The others are in DC, NY and Florida. And one all over Texas.

Yeah, I got the location of he fourth shuttle wrong, it is going to Florida.

Kalpana Chawla was a great woman, I met her a few times at NASA events. So excited to get to go on her first mission. It was a really horrible day to know that such a sweet and dedicated person had dies so tragically.

NASA and the triumphs of those who put their lives on the line are such a large part of our national identity and spirit. To see those thing used as political repayment and as a smart comment is just sad.

// yeah yeah, welcome to Fark etc, but it always hits hard when a good person you know is killed so horribly.

hetheeme:Kalpana Chawla was a great woman, I met her a few times at NASA events. So excited to get to go on her first mission. It was a really horrible day to know that such a sweet and dedicated person had dies so tragically.

// yeah yeah, welcome to Fark etc, but it always hits hard when a good person you know is killed so horribly.

I didn't know her, but she flew out of the flight club I fly from when she was at NASA Ames. Right after Columbia there was talk of renaming Palo Alto Airport after her, but nothing ever came of it.

One goes to the Smithsonian. One goes where NASA has most all of it's other cool stuff in a museum. One goes to the West Coast for geographic balance. One goes to the tourist capital of the world (Paris can fark off).

It's not about the history of the program. It's about exposure to the maximum number of people in some of largest museum destinations in the US. Houston is not a major international city with lots of tourists, sorry to break it to you. Disneyworld is, and Kennedy Space Center draws a big crowd on its own. LA draws crowds. DC and New York certainly do.

I'm sorry, it's not that it was political repayment, it's just that Houston had a weaker case than all of the other locations for getting one.

hetheeme:It's really dispicable that Obama handed the shuttles to states that supported him. It's not like Houston has any kind of link to the space program worthy of a shuttle, right? No, send two to Califormia and one to NYC.

Shameful.

I think Texas deserved one, but I'm not crazy enough to blame their getting screwed over on Obama.

Since they're hauling it through Inglewood on their way to the CSC it will be stripped and distributed fairly among people who have no idea what they're looking at before it even hits Exposition Park. In exchange for crack or weapons, of course. See? Everything works out in the end.

hetheeme:It's really dispicable that Obama handed the shuttles to states that supported him. It's not like Houston has any kind of link to the space program worthy of a shuttle, right? No, send two to Califormia and one to NYC.

Shameful.

Is it also Obamas fault when everyone in this thread calls you out for being a Moran?

clear_prop:hetheeme: It's really dispicable that Obama handed the shuttles to states that supported him. It's not like Houston has any kind of link to the space program worthy of a shuttle, right? No, send two to Califormia and one to NYC.

Shameful.

Two to California? huh? Endeavour is the only one in California. The others are in DC, NY and Florida. And one all over Texas.

To be completely fair -- and mind you, I *do not* endorse petty politics -- at the time the decision was being made, Texas was being especially pissy. Yes, even by Texas standards. Routinely and very publicly slamming the president and his party, and even talking secession. I can't really blame the administration in this case if the deliberately passed them over. I normally would, but not this time. Maybe they just wanted to make sure they weren't giving up one of their Shuttles to a foreign power.

hetheeme:It's really dispicable that Obama handed the shuttles to states that supported him. It's not like Houston has any kind of link to the space program worthy of a shuttle, right? No, send two to Califormia and one to NYC.

Shameful.

The ONLY debatable choice is Enterprise going to New York City and that is justified by superior public outreach potential of superior NYC tourism. Houston has a Saturn V and you're not going to get a single new tourist to Houston who would somehow be interested in a shuttle but not in a Saturn V and Mission Control. All the space shuttles were built, tested, upgraded, and overhauled in California, launched and landed in Florida, and the Smithsonian was in DC before Obama was born. Enterprise did not fly in space and Houston received a full-size orbiter mockup that, unlike any of the real orbiters, has an interior that tourists can visit. In other words, everybody complaining about Texas' situation in this can STFU and DIAF because the argument has no merit whatsoever. Goddammit.

Fun fact: Endeavour by any measure is the youngest shuttle, but construction of its crew module actually began in 1982 before Challenger was rolled out for the first time. "Structural spares" -- almost a whole 'nother shuttle airframe -- were part of the contract to build Discovery and Atlantis.

hetheeme:It's really dispicable that Obama handed the shuttles to states that supported him. It's not like Houston has any kind of link to the space program worthy of a shuttle, right? No, send two to Califormia and one to NYC.

Shameful.

Yeah, cause Houston took such good care of displaying the last rocket we gave 'em

hetheeme:It's really dispicable that Obama handed the shuttles to states that supported him. It's not like Houston has any kind of link to the space program worthy of a shuttle, right? No, send two to Califormia and one to NYC.

clear_prop:hetheeme: It's really dispicable that Obama handed the shuttles to states that supported him. It's not like Houston has any kind of link to the space program worthy of a shuttle, right? No, send two to Califormia and one to NYC.

Shameful.

Two to California? huh? Endeavour is the only one in California. The others are in DC, NY and Florida. And one all over Texas.

violentsalvation:hetheeme: It's really dispicable that Obama handed the shuttles to states that supported him. It's not like Houston has any kind of link to the space program worthy of a shuttle, right? No, send two to Califormia and one to NYC.

Shameful.

I think Texas deserved one, but I'm not crazy enough to blame their getting screwed over on Obama.

Well technically they have one... And also the sad state of the Johnson space center and the low destination tourist numbers cancelled out any decent change.

A) They're leaving LAX in the dead of night, andB) They're trying to clear out as many civilians as possible, after making such a big deal (Inglewood City Hall, etc) about it.

The fly over/landing was epic. Local cops and CHP did a respectable job when they shut down the freeways near the airport. Everything went smoothly. Now they're kicking people off the curbs, not letting them watch it go by. Including the neighborhoods who had all their trees removed, and these are neighborhoods that aren't getting any civic goodies anytime soon other than maybe more cop patrols (South Central). If the shuttle was going through Manhattan Beach, they wouldn't kick people out...

And, regarding Houston, the whole reason it's Mission Control was political pork at its finest courtesy of LBJ. If the engineers had their way, mission control would probably be in Florida or California, closer to the folks who actually designed and built the thing.

Also, the shuttle would land at Edwards, quite frequently. I remember as a kid one particularly iffy landing where there was a massive sonic boom all over Los Angeles.

hetheeme:Yeah, I got the location of he fourth shuttle wrong, it is going to Florida.

Kalpana Chawla was a great woman, I met her a few times at NASA events. So excited to get to go on her first mission. It was a really horrible day to know that such a sweet and dedicated person had dies so tragically.

NASA and the triumphs of those who put their lives on the line are such a large part of our national identity and spirit. To see those thing used as political repayment and as a smart comment is just sad.

// yeah yeah, welcome to Fark etc, but it always hits hard when a good person you know is killed so horribly.

Wanna know what's sadder? Using her for sympathy just because you hate the President. We get it. You hate Obama. Too bad you can't exert as much energy into learning facts and history as you can into rubbin' out that rageboner.

hetheeme:It's really dispicable that Obama handed the shuttles to states that supported him. It's not like Houston has any kind of link to the space program worthy of a shuttle, right? No, send two to Califormia and one to NYC.

Shameful.

Texas was given a shuttle to all the residents broken down into tiny pocket sized pieces for each and every citizen. Granted, it was Bush that gave it to them, but they got one. What's the name of the second shuttle in California?

Huntsville has Pathfinder. Wingspan and tail are the same dimensions as the real thing, but it is a bit shorter in length. As the name implies, it was used for route checking and other activities that they didn't want to risk Enterprise or a real shuttle on.

Houston also has SAIL, which is the ground-based duplicate of a space shuttle's entire avionics system, all the computers and wiring hooked up and functioning exactly as in a real shuttle. Any true geek would want to see this as much as the actual birds.

the 2nd california one belongs to Boeing.. its the balsa wood full scale exterior mockup..,

The mockup, which was moved Thursday without its one wing and tail section attached, was first created by North American Rockwell (now Boeing) as part of the company's bid to build the space shuttle fleet for NASA. After winning the contract, the company kept the 122-foot-long by 35-foot-tall (37- by 11-meter) mockup at the Downey assembly facility, where it served as a fit check tool for instruments and payloads being built for the real orbiters.